“Sooner or later, Elliot, this will all catch up to you.”
Although the sitcom episode earlier in the season was fun and emotional and memorable, it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. This is the show firing on all cylinders, delivering breathless tension in a compact 40 minutes as these characters all tumble toward imminent danger. The quote above could not be more ominous, and it also could not be more true. Angela and Elliot and Darlene are realizing that they’re not free from consequences, and whatever fantasies they may have constructed are being crushed by the blunt force of reality.
This trio of realizations seems like a logical endgame to this season’s character arcs, and it grounds Elliot’s arc in particular because it ties his actions to those of the people around him. We’re not just hanging out up in his head anymore; we’re feeling reverberations in both his immediate vicinity and in the world at large. The scene on the subway between him and Angela is one of the most poignant moments of the series, and Doubleday and Malek both do a phenomenal job of selling the emotion of that scene.
“Maybe wars aren’t meant to be won,” Elliot muses. “Maybe they’re meant to be continuous.” Esmail is showing us that this war is reaching one of many bloody climaxes, and the episode is a technical masterpiece in that regard. The last ten minutes are brilliant, the music crescendoing and building up tension before that final scene. The camera watches from across the street, but you can feel up close the very real consequences these characters are facing. They want to be done with all of this, but other people–other forces–won’t let them go so easily.
GRADE: A-
OTHER THOUGHTS:
-I wonder what we’re supposed to find in that overhead view of Elliot’s apartment. Are we supposed to find anything? Either way, cool shot.
– “Do you really want to say no to me?” Joanna Wellick, you are terrifying and amazing all at once.
-The metal striking through the silence at the beginning is used incredibly effectively. Yet another creative opening sequence.
-Shoutout to that opening scene as well between Colby and Price. “Control is an illusion” is one of the major themes of the series, and that’s interesting to look at when it comes to Price. He’s a guy who wants to be a God, who wants to control everything around him. Is it an illusion?
-2 more episodes left. I should be able to get next week’s review up very quickly, but the jury’s out on the finale review. It’ll get done, though.
Photo credit: USA Network, Mr. Robot
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